(i)Minor
discrepancies between constituent figures and totals are due to rounding;

(ii)All value figures are expressed in United States
dollars;

(iii)Trade figures include the intra-trade of
free trade areas, customs unions, regional and other country groupings;

(iv)Datafor the latest year are provisional.

Time series
notes - Category description

Name

Description

Coverage

Information on geographical
coverage, on commodity coverage and on the inclusion of special trade zones
(e.g. processing zones).

Trade system

Specifies any deviation
from the default "General trade" system.

Method of valuation

Identifies import values reported
on a free on board (f.o.b.) basis.

Extracting
intra-trade or extra-trade time series

- To get extra-trade valuesfor a selected regional
integration agreement, select the partner "Extra-trade". For example, when NAFTA is selected
within the "Selected regional integration agreement" data set, choose
the partner "Extra-trade" to get NAFTA extra-trade.

- To get intra-trade values for a selected regional
integration agreement, choose as partner the same group as for the reporter.
For example, choose NAFTA as reporter and as partner to get its intra-trade
values.

Value flag
codes

Code

Name

B

Break in data
continuity.Data beginning with the
highlighted year do not form a consistent series with those from earlier
years.

C

Coverage difference. May
cover transactions belonging to other services items.

The word "reporter"
refers to a "country" or "customs territory" that reports
trade flows with its partners by origin and destination.

WTO members arefrequently referred to as
"country", although some members are not countries in the usual sense
of the word but are officially "customs territories". The definition
of geographical and other groupings in this report does not imply an expression
of opinion by the Secretariat concerning the status of any country or
territory, the delimitation of its frontiers, nor on the rights and obligations
of any WTO Member in respect of WTO Agreements.

South and Central America and
the Caribbean is referred to South and Central America, the Bolivarian Republic
of Venezuela, the Republic of Korea and the Separate Customs Territory of
Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu are referenced as Bolivarian Rep. of
Venezuela, Korea, Republic of and Taipei, Chinese respectively.

It should be
noted that other food products and live animals, beverages and tobacco, animal
and vegetable oils, fats and waxes, oilseeds and oleaginous fruit are referred
to as other food products, electronic data processing and office equipment is
referred to as EDP and office
equipment, and integrated circuits and electronic components is referred to as
integrated circuits.

Two systems of
recording merchandise exports and imports are in common use. They are referred
to as general trade and special trade and differ mainly in the
way warehoused and re-exported goods are treated. General trade figures are
larger than the corresponding special trade figures because the latter exclude
certain trade flows, such as goods shipped through bonded warehouses.

To the extent
possible, total merchandise trade is defined according to the general trade
definition. It covers all types of inward and outward movement of goods through
a country or territory including movements through customs warehouses and free
zones. Goods include all merchandise that either add to or reduce the stock of
material resources of a country by entering (imports) or leaving (exports) the
country's economic territory. For further explanations, see United Nations
International Trade Statistics, Concepts and Definitions, Series M, No 52, Revision 2.

Unless otherwise
indicated, exports are valued at transaction value, including the cost of
transportation and insurance to bring the merchandise to the frontier of the
exporting country or territory ("free on board" valuation). Unless
otherwise indicated, imports are valued at transaction value plus the cost of
transportation and insurance to the frontier of the importing country or
territory ("Cost insurance and freight" valuation).

Re-exports and re-imports

It should be
noted that due to the use of the general system for recording merchandise trade
statistics, re-exports are included in total merchandise trade. However, in the
case of Hong-Kong, China the magnitude of its re-exports (amounting in 2014 to
$508 billion), if included in regional or world aggregates, would introduce a
significant element of double counting. Therefore, Hong-Kong,China's re-exports are excluded from the World and
Asia aggregates.
China reports imports from China (re-imports), a trade flow which accounted for
7.4 per cent ($144.6 billion) of its total merchandise imports in 2014. These
imports consist of products which have been produced in China and thereafter
temporarily exported. The product structure of China’s imports from China
indicates that in absolute terms office and telecom equipment is the largest
category ($88.5 billion) in this particular trade flow.

Specific notes for selected economies

Merchandise trade statistics of the European Union

Beginning with
the 2002 report, EU data compiled according to national statistical practices
have been replaced, starting 1993, with data compiled by Eurostat in accordance
with EU legislation. The concepts and definitions adopted by the EU are in line
with the United Nations’ International Trade Statistics, Concepts and
Definitions, Series M, N° 52, Revision 2. As a result, the conceptual
differences between EU member states’ data have been substantially reduced.
Moreover, for the EU as a whole, Eurostat data are more
timely than the previous source, thus reducing substantially the amount
of estimation included in the EU aggregate. Since January 1993, statistics on
the trade between the member states of the EU have
been collected through the “Intrastat” system (see GATT
1994, International Trade Trends and Statistics). The coverage of this system,
which relies on reports submitted by firms for transactions above a minimum
value, is not as wide as the previous one, which was based on customs
declarations. This is particularly noticeable on the import side. For example,
prior to the adoption of the Intrastat system,
reported intra-EU imports (c.i.f.) closely matched reported intra-EU exports
(f.o.b.). However, from 1993 onwards, the reported value of intra-EU imports
has been on average around 3 per cent lower than the value of intra-EU exports,
indicating a substantial under-reporting of intra-EU imports. As a result of
this inconsistency, the Secretariat has substituted intra-EU exports data for
intra-EU imports at the aggregate EU level when estimating regional and world
totals. However, this adjustment is not allocated between EU member countries.
Hence, the sum of reported imports of individual EU members does not add to the
figure for EU imports as a whole. This adjustment is also reflected in the
volume estimates for the EU as a whole.

Major breaks in data continuity

Beginning 2003, Singapore
includes merchandise trade with Indonesia.

Beginning 2008, Indonesia’s
imports are reported according to the general trade system.

With respect to the Russian
Federation, considerable uncertainty remains
about the accuracy of foreign trade statistics, especially as regards imports.
A large proportion of the reported data on imports consists of official
estimates of inflows of goods which enter the economy without being registered
by the customs authorities. Such adjustments to import data accounted for 8 per
cent of the officially reported totals in 2013.

Merchandise trade
flows between the European Union member States include trade associated with
fraudulent VAT declaration, which concerns mainly office and telecommunications
equipment. Between 2006 and 2007, intra-EU merchandise trade statistics have
been particularly affected by a considerable reduction in this fraudulent trade
in the United Kingdom.

The world merchandise trade network by
product and region is based on export data. It is constructed in the following
way:

First, total merchandise exports from each of
the seven regions are aggregated from individual country figures.

Next, the total merchandise exports of each
region are distributed by destination and then by product. The regional and
commodity breakdown is based on UNSD Comtrade database,
EUROSTAT, national statistics and Secretariat estimates.

It should be noted that World, Asia
and four East Asian traders totals do not include Hong-Kong,China's re-exports as in the
"Total merchandise trade" data set. (see
Section V. I.).

The network is only available for selectedproduct
aggregatesand regional groupings (see below).

Principal adjustments

The principal adjustments to the figures are
as follows:

(i) Exports of
ships to the open registry countries Panama and Liberia are reallocated from
each region's exports to Latin America and Africa to "unspecified
destinations" (a category not shown separately),

(ii) China's exports are adjusted to
approximate their final destination,

(iii) Exports of non-monetary gold, where
known, are included. When they cannot be broken down by destination, they are
allocated to "unspecified destinations",
(iv) South Africa's
trade does not include trade with the former Southern African Customs Union
members.

(v) Estimates for
the Middle East include unrecorded re-exports of the United Arab Emirates which
accounted for 6 per cent of the region's total exports in 2013.

Depending on the location of the supplier and
the consumer, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) defines four
modes of supply. In addition to the cross-border supply (mode 1), where both
the supplier and the consumer remain in their respective home territories, GATS
also covers cases where consumers are outside their home territory to consume
services (mode 2 – consumption abroad), or where service suppliers are in the
territory of the consumers to provide their services, whether by establishing
affiliates through direct investment abroad (mode 3 – commercial presence), or
through the presence of natural persons (mode 4).

An economy's Balance of Payments, namely the
services account, can be used to derive estimates covering trade in commercial
services for modes 1, 2 and 4. The Balance of Payments does however not include
most of the information on services supplied through foreign affiliates that is
required to estimate the size of mode 3. A framework for collecting these data,
the “Foreign Affiliates Statistics (FATS)” was adopted by the international
statistical community for the first time in 2002, and then further developed in
2010.FATS are available in the annual
publication International Trade Statistics and on the online tool ITIP
services.

Exports
and importsExports
(credits or receipts) and imports (debits or payments) of commercial services
are included in balance of payments statistics, in conformity with the
concepts, definitions and classification of the sixth (2009) edition of the IMF
Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6) as well
as the 2010 edition of the Manual on Statistics of International Trade in
Services (MSITS 2010).

Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others
cover processing, assembly, labelling, packing, and similar activities
undertaken by enterprises that do not own the goods concerned and are paid a fee by the owner. Only
the fee charged by the processor, which may cover the cost of materials
purchased, is included under this item. Examples include oil refining,
liquefaction of natural gas, assembly of clothing and electronics, assembly,
labelling, and packing.

Maintenance and
repair services n.i.e.cover
maintenance and repair work- by
residents - on goods that are owned by non-residents (and vice versa). The
repairs may be performed at the site of the repairer or elsewhere. The value
recorded for maintenance and repairs is the value of the work done — not the
gross value of the goods before and after repairs.

Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by
others and Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.
form a new WTO aggregate named Goods-related
services.

Transport is the process of carriage of people and objects
from one location to another as well as related supporting and auxiliary
services. Transport can be classified according to: (i)
mode of transport, namely, sea, air, or other (“other” may be further broken
down into rail, road, internal waterway, pipeline, and space transport as well
as electricity transmission); and (ii) what is carried — passengers or freight.
Also included are postal and courier services.

Travel credits cover goods and
services - for own use or to give away - acquired by non-residents from an
economy during visits to that economy. Travel debits cover goods and services -
for own use or to give away - acquired from other economies by residents of the
reporting economy during visits to these other economies. The most common goods and services covered are lodging,
food and beverages, entertainment and transportation (within the economy
visited), gifts and souvenirs. Travel is further subdivided into: (i) personal travel and (ii) business travel.

The aggregate category Other commercial services corresponds to the following components
defined in BPM6:

Construction covers the creation, renovation, repair, or extension of
fixed assets in the form of buildings, land improvements of an engineering
nature, and other similar engineering constructions such as roads, bridges,
dams, and so forth. It also includes related installation and assembly work,
site preparation, specialized services such as painting, plumbing, and
demolition, and management of construction projects. Construction also covers
the acquisition of goods and services by the enterprises undertaking
construction work from the economy of location of the construction work.
Construction can be divided into (i) construction
abroad and (ii) construction in the compiling economy.

Charges
for the use of intellectual property n.i.e. include: (i) Charges for
the use of proprietary rights (such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, industrial
processes and designs including trade secrets, franchises); these rights can
arise from research and development, as well as from marketing; and (ii)
Charges for licenses to reproduce or distribute (or both) intellectual property
embodied in produced originals or prototypes (such as copyrights on books and
manuscripts, computer software, cinematographic works, and sound recordings)
and related rights (such as for live performances and television, cable, or
satellite broadcast).

Telecommunications,
computer and information servicescover (i) Telecommunications
services, which encompass the broadcast or transmission of sound, images, data,
or other information by telephone, telex, telegram, radio and television cable
transmission, radio and television satellite, electronic mail, facsimile, and
so forth, including business network services, teleconferencing, and support
services; (ii) Computer services consisting of hardware- and software-related
services and data-processing services; (iii) Information services including
news agency services, such as the provision of news, photographs, and feature
articles to the media as well as database services.

Other business
services include (i) Research and development services, (ii) Professional and
management consulting services and (iii) Technical, trade-related and other
business services. (i) Research and development services consist of
services that are associated with basic and applied research, and experimental
development of new products and processes. (ii) Professional and management
consulting services include (a) legal services, accounting, management
consulting, managerial services, and public relations services; and (b)
advertising, market research, and public opinion polling services. (iii) Technical,
trade-related, and other business services include: (a) architectural,
engineering, and other technical services; (b) waste treatment and depollution,
agricultural, and mining services; (c) operating leasing services; (d)
trade-related services; and (e) other business services n.i.e.

Personal,
cultural, and recreational services consist of (i) Audiovisual and related services and (ii) other personal,
cultural, and recreational services. (i) Audiovisual and related services cover services and fees related
to the production of motion pictures (on film, videotape, disk, or transmitted
electronically, etc.), radio and television programs (live or on tape), and
musical recordings. (ii) Other personal, cultural, and recreational services
include (a) health services, (b) education services, (c) heritage and
recreational services, and (d) other personal services. Health services as well
as education services are provided remotely or on-site. Data on exports and
imports of total services (including government goods and services n.i.e), other services (including government goods and
services n.i.e) as well as government goods and
services n.i.e. are available as memorandum items in
the WTO online Statistics Database.

Government
goods and services n.i.e. cover: (a) goods and services supplied by and to
enclaves, such as embassies, military bases, and international organizations;
(b) goods and services acquired from the host economy by diplomats, consular
staff, and military personnel located abroad and their dependents; (c) services
supplied by and to governments and not included in other categories of
services.

Coverage
and comparability While several economies worldwide
have fully implemented the BPM6 for the recording of their Balance of Payments
services transactions, others are still compiling their statistics according to
the BPM5 methodology. Therefore, comparability and coverage of data may not
always be complete. It should be noted in particular that world and regional
estimates of trade in new services items such as Manufacturing
services on physical inputs owned by others and Maintenance and repair services
n.i.e. may be underestimated, as some economies do
not report these items yet.

Depending on the location of the supplier and
the consumer, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) defines four
modes of supply. In addition to the cross-border supply (mode 1), where both
the supplier and the consumer remain in their respective home territories, GATS
also covers cases where consumers are outside their home territory to consume
services (mode 2 – consumption abroad), or cases where service suppliers are in
the territory of the consumers to provide their services, whether by
establishing affiliates through direct investment abroad (mode 3 – commercial
presence), or through the presence of natural persons (mode 4).

A country’s balance of payments, that is the
services account, can be used to derive estimates covering trade in commercial
services for modes 1,2 and 4. The Balance of Payments
does however not include most of the information on the local deliveries of
services through foreign affiliates that is required to estimate the size of mode
3. A framework for collecting these data, the “Foreign Affiliates Trade in
Services (FATS) statistics”, has been developed and adopted by the
international statistical community in 2002. Further information on these “new”
statistics is available in the International Trade Statistics publication.

Exports
and importsExports
(credits or receipts) and imports (debits or payments) of commercial services
derived from statistics on international service transactions are included in
the balance of payments statistics, in conformity with the concepts,
definitions and classification of the fifth (1993) edition of the IMF Balance
of Payments Manual.

Definition
of commercial services in the balance of paymentsIn
the fifth edition of the Balance of Payments Manual, the current account is
subdivided into goods, services (including government services, n.i.e.), income (investment income and compensation of
employees), and current transfers. The commercial services category is defined
as being equal to services minus government services, n.i.e.
Commercial services is further sub-divided into transportation services,
travel, and other commercial services.

Transportation
Services
covers sea, air and other including land, internal waterway, space and pipeline
transport services that are performed by residents of one economy for those of another, and that involve the carriage of passengers, the
movement of goods (freight), rentals (charters) of carriers with crew, and
related supporting and auxiliary services.

Travel includes goods and services acquired by
personal travellers, for health, education or other purposes, and by business
travellers. Unlike other services, travel is not a specific type of service,
but an assortment of goods and services consumed by travellers. The most common
goods and services covered are lodging, food and beverages, entertainment and
transportation (within the economy visited), gifts and souvenirs.

Other
commercial services
corresponds to the following components defined in BPM5:

(1) Communications servicesincludes telecommunication, postal and courier services.
Telecommunication services encompasses the transmission of sound, images or
other information by telephone, telex, telegram, radio and television cable and
broadcasting, satellite, electronic mail, facsimile services etc., including
business network services, teleconferencing and support services. It does not
include the value of the information transported. Also included are cellular
telephone services, Internet backbone services and on-line access services,
including provision of access to the Internet,

(2) Construction covers work performed on
construction projects and installation by employees of an enterprise in
locations outside the territory of the enterprise (the one-year rule to
determine residency is to be applied flexibly).In addition goods used by construction companies for their projects are
included which implies that the "true" services component tends to be
overestimated,

(6)Royalties and licence fees, covering payments and receipts for the
use of intangible non-financial assets and proprietary rights, such as patents,
copyrights, trademarks, industrial processes, and franchises,

(7)Other business services, comprising trade-related services, operational
leasing (rentals), and miscellaneous business, professional and technical
services such as legal, accounting, management consulting, public relations
services, advertising, market research and public opinion polling, research and
development services, architectural, engineering, and other technical services,
agricultural, mining and on-site processing,

(8)Personal, cultural, and recreational services is subdivided into
two categories, (i) audiovisual
services and (ii) other cultural and recreational services.The first component includes services and
fees related to the production of motion pictures, radio and television
programmes, and musical recordings.Other personal, cultural, and recreational services includes services
such as those associated with museums, libraries, archives, and other cultural,
sporting, and recreational activities.

Data on exports and imports of services
(including government services n.i.e), other
services, as well as government services n.i.e. are
available as memorandum items in the WTO online Statistics Database.

Government services n.i.e.
is a residual category covering government transactions (including those of
international organizations) not contained in other components of the BPM5 . Included are all transactions (in both goods and
services) by embassies, consulates, military units, with residents of economies
in which they are located and all transactions with other economies. The
dataset on international trade in services is produced jointly and published
simultaneously with UNCTAD.

Coverage
and comparability

With the implementation of BPM5, the coverage
and comparability of services trade data have improved over time,
however, given that these improvements have been made gradually, they also
resulted in a number of breaks in series and are subject to significant
distortions.

First, some countries do not collect
statistics for certain service categories. Second, some service transactions
are simply not registered. If central bank records are used, situations where
no financial intermediaries are employed are not counted. In the case of
surveys, the coverage of trading establishments is often incomplete. A
particularly serious problem is that services transmitted electronically are
frequently unregistered as well as when the transactions take place within
multinational corporations. Third, statistics may be reported on a net rather
than on a gross basis, often as a result of compensation arrangements such as
in rail transport or in communication services. Fourth some services
transactions may be difficult to capture. It is often easier for compilers to
collect more complete and reliable information on trade in services exports
rather than on imports given the large number and diversity of importers
compared to that of exporters, e.g. financial services, computer services.
Fifth, some particular service transactions may not be classified to the
appropriate BPM5 services classification. Methodologies to build estimates for
certain service categories may also differ between economies, notably due to
the continuing efforts to improve these statistics. Some economies have made
progress in the estimation of insurance services to take into account premium
supplements and claim volatility (i.e. in the case of catastrophic events).
Sixth, the alternate sources used for countries which are not members of the
IMF do not necessarily comply with the IMF concepts and definitions. Seventh,
misclassification of transactions may lead to an underestimation of commercial
services when service transactions are registered as income, transfers or trade
in merchandise rather than trade in services or, conversely, to an
overestimation of commercial services when transactions pertaining to income,
transfers or official transactions are registered in the private service
categories.

Specific notes for selected economies

European Union

Statistics are sourced from the Eurostat
database.

Trade in services of the United States

Over recent years the United States Bureau of
Economic Analysis has continuously improved its trade in commercial services
estimates.

In 2011, the United States implemented a number
of changes in the classification of certain services transactions beginning
with statistics for the year 1999.Apart
from regular updates in source data, these improvements were part of a broader
effort to align with the recommendations of the new IMF Balance of Payments
Manual (BPM6).

In particular, revisions incorporated the
results of BEA’s 2009 financial services benchmark survey (which did not
contain a reporting threshold) as well as the reclassification of postal
services from U.S.
government miscellaneous services to other transportation.U.S. expenditures by foreign
nationals working at international organizations were removed from other
services.Revised methodologies were
used for estimating the U.S.
expenditures of foreign residents who work in the United States for less than 1 year
and for estimating U.S.
air carriers’ expenditures in foreign ports. Finally, cruises fares were
reclassified from passenger fares to travel.As a result of these changes, United States' exports and imports
of services were revised upwards.

In 2010, the United States revised its goods and
services accounts to reflect the reclassification of certain transactions from
services to goods. In particular, in previously published statistics, certain
exports and imports of military-related goods were recorded on a transactor basis and were combined with other services
transactions in the services account. In addition, expenditures on goods and
services by foreign air and ocean carriers in U.S. ports (exports) and by U.S. air and
ocean carriers in foreign ports (imports) were included in “other”
transportation services. Beginning with statistics for 1999, fuel expenditures
by foreign and U.S.
air and ocean carriers were reclassified from “other” transportation services
to goods.

In 2008, the United States started to compile
trade in commercial services covering affiliated as well as unaffiliated trade
for individual services items (previously affiliated trade data for a number of
other commercial services items were grouped under a single heading in US
statistics). A number of changes in terms of content were also introduced.
Beginning with 2006 and continuing with 2007 surveys of transactions in
selected services and transactions in financial services, transactions with
affiliated and unaffiliated persons are collected on the same form and in the
same detail. This in particular reduces the potential for duplicate reporting
or omissions. It is important to note that given this major revision, some time
series were significantly revised and for some other detailed services items,
including both affiliated and non affiliated trade,
data are not available prior to 2006.Another major revision was introduced in
2003, when the United States
revised its methodology for estimating trade in insurance services. The new
methodology measures insurance services as premiums less normal claims. Normal
claims comprise two components: “regularly occurring claims” that are
calculated as an average of all claims paid during the previous six years, and
a share of “catastrophic claims” that is added-on to “regularly occurring
claims” in equal increments over the two decades following their event. As
comprehensive data collection on insurance services started in 1986, the first
six-year average of “regularly occurring claims” could only be calculated for
1992. As a result, time series on trade in insurance services, and consequently
on other commercial services, have been revised back to 1992. To complete the
2003 revision, in 2004 the United
States added to insurance services an
estimate of premium supplements (or income earned on technical reserves of
insurance companies). Insurance companies provide financial protection to
policy holders through the pooling of risk and provide financial intermediation
services through the investment of reserves. The income is treated as accruing
to the policy holders who pay it back to the insurers as supplements to
premiums to cover the full cost of insurance. The investment income of
insurance companies is not output in and of itself, it
is used to impute the value of the implicit component of insurance services
attributable to financial intermediation.

Travel exports and transportation services
exports and imports of Japan

In order to enhance the coverage of estimates
of travel exports and imports, the Bank of Japan and the Japanese Ministry of
Finance reviewed their compilation methodology, notably by including results
from a new expenditure survey of foreign travellers as of 2003. This revision
had a major impact on the estimates for travel exports. This methodology was
reviewed in 2007 based on the results of a new survey (International
Travellers’ Survey on Expenditures) which are used in the new compilation
method to directly estimate the amounts spent by travellers to pay for goods
and services. This applies to exports and imports data as from 2006. As from
2009, Japan’s
travel exports and imports data reflect the results of new surveys. Data ontransportation
services are consistent with revised 1996-2004 data published in 2006 by the
Bank of Japan (based on a new methodology for measuring sea freight fares).

Trade in other commercial services of India

In the course of 2004, the Reserve Bank of India released
new data following the introduction of a new reporting system to improve the
coverage of Indian trade in services statistics (mainly affecting the item
other business services).

The data for India for "computer
services" refer to WTO Secretariat estimates. The Indian figures reported
by the Reserve Bank of India
and international agencies refer to "software services" (covering
Information Technology (IT) and IT enabled services). The coverage of
"software services" does not correspond to the definition of computer
services in international guidelines. WTO secretariat estimates are drawn from
the software figure which is broken down into a computer/IT component included
in the item "computer services", and an IT enabled services component
included under the item "miscellaneous business, professional and
technical services" (under "other business services"). This
breakdown is done on the basis of the information published in the annual RBI
report "Survey on Computer Software & Information Technology Services
Exports".

Trade in commercial services of United Arab
Emirates

Commercial services trade statistics of United Arab Emirates
only cover transportation and travel.

Trade in commercial services of Nigeria

New data from 2005 compiled on the basis of
BPM5 recommendations were released by the Bank of Nigeria in 2007. This results
in a break in series for Nigerian data in 2005.

Trade in commercial services of South Africa

In 2006 the Reserve Bank of South Africa
improved its commercial services estimates, and revised its data back to 2001
(resulting in a break in series for that year).

Trade in other commercial services of Bahrain

New data compiled from 2004 for other
commercial services items, resulting in a break in series for that year.

Trade in other commercial services of LebanonNew
data compiled from 2010 resulted in a break in series for that year for other
business services, insurance services, financial services, computer and
information services, as well as personal, cultural and recreational services.

Trade in other commercial services of Oman

In 2008 new data compiled (new national data
from new survey of corporate firms in 2007) for other commercial services
items, resulting in a break in series for 2005 for exports and 2003 for
imports.

Trade in commercial services of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Starting with 2004, Iran compiles
data according to the recommendations of the BPM5.

Trade in commercial services of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

New data are compiled from 2005 according to
BPM5 principles. Prior to 2008 a number of items (e.g. financial services,
other business services) were still not all classified according to the BPM5 definitions
and some items were received net.

Trade in financial services

For Singapore (from 1995), and Switzerland,
(from 1999) data on trade in financial services include Financial
Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured (FISIM). This is not in accordance
with BPM5 recommendations.

For Australia, data as from 2009
include FISIM due to the country's transition to BPM6.

Aggregation of
the indices to obtain a world total is a two-tier process. First, export and import deflators from national and international
sources are complemented with Secretariat estimates for missing data. They are
then aggregated to obtain regional totals. The volume index for each region is
obtained by dividing the respective trade value index for each region by the
corresponding regional deflator.Second, the total world
merchandise volume index is obtained by deflating the world trade value with
the aggregate of regional deflators. Throughout the aggregation process trade
values of the previous year are used as weights.

These sources are supplemented by national
publications, other international databases and Secretariat estimates.

Figures for total merchandise trade are
largely derived from IMF, International
Financial Statistics. Data on merchandise trade by origin, destination and
product are mainly obtained from Eurostat's Comext
database, GTIS' Global Trade Atlas database and UNSD's Comtrade
database. Some inconsistencies in the aggregate export and import data for the
same country or territory between the two sources are inevitable. These can be
attributed to the use of different systems of recording trade, to the way in
which IMF and UNSD have converted data expressed in national currencies into
dollars, and revisions which can be more readily incorporated in the IMF data.

Statistics on trade in commercial services
are mainly drawn from the IMF, Balance of
Payments Statistics. Data for European Union members, EU candidate and EU
observer countries as well as the EU(27) aggregate are
drawn from Eurostat on-line database from 2004. For other economies that do not
report to the IMF (e.g. Chinese Taipei) data are drawn from national sources.
Estimations for missing data are mainly based on national statistics.
Statistics on trade in commercial services by origin and destination are also
derived from national statistics.

A matrix summarizing the status of the trade in services
data publication by International organizations is available athttp://unstats.un.org/unsd/tradeserv/TFSITS/matrix.htm. The table provides links to the databases as well as
information on when the information is updated, availability of details,
partner data, etc. This table is maintained by the Task Force on Statistics of
International Trade in Services.

Acknowledgements
are due to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Global Trade Information
Services, Inc. (GTIS), the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development, the Statistical Office of the European
Communities, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the United
Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the United
Nations Statistics Division, the United Nations Industrial Development
Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Bank
whose assistance in supplying advance information has greatly facilitated the
work of the Secretariat. Acknowledgements are also due to national institutions
for providing advance statistics.